Editorials

The rupee’s continuous slide against the greenback has all the stakeholders worried. This unchecked tumble is set to have deep repercussions on inflation and imports, gnawing at the precious little foreign exchange reserves that have already hit rock bottom. In this gloomy scenario, pressure is mounting on the Q...

Now that the balance of payments crisis has passed, it appears the Finance Ministry is in a more relaxes position. The successful Chinese and Saudi bailouts that Pakistan received after negotiations (the details of which are yet to be received) have eased the economy and given it breathing...

The present government is working harder to restructure the public administration of the country to improve its working. Various reports indicate that it has decided to create a separate tax policy division as part of the ongoing reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). According to a tax...

The World Economic Outlook, a global survey of key macroeconomic indicators of member countries uploaded on the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) website, has made some dire prognosis with respect to Pakistan's economy: (i) growth rate would decline by 1.8 percent in the current fiscal year - from 5.8 percent...

The government’s efforts to secure an economic stabilisation bailout from the IMF appear to be heading in the expected direction. A senior government official has said that after internal consultations, the government prepared a draft Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for the IMF to review. For its part,...

Everybody knows that collection shown by FBR contains blocked refunds of billons, advances from government-owned corporations and amounts extorted, though not yet due. The sordid story of over-reporting of collection and overstating targets will continue till the time action is not taken directly by the Supreme Court as even...

Once again the PIA management has secured the Rs17 billion bailout package from its majority shareholder by playing the threat of grounding the fleet. The ECC’s decision is truly another dose of oxygen, which will not save the national flag carrier. Giving quarterly dole-outs to the ailing airlines is not...

In Pakistan, a lack of bank account ownership at a formal financial institution remains a key economic obstacle for a staggering 100 out of 125 million adults. Although the percentage of those with ownership has doubled to 21% from 2011 to 2017, the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) which...

Repeated requests by Business Recorder to ascertain who is leading the visiting International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) mission to Pakistan tasked to negotiate a new bailout package with an associated set of programme conditions, have been stonewalled by both the Fund and the Ministry of Finance officials. It is imperative that the...

AS talks with the IMF hit their stride, one glaring hole in the government’s vision for reforms is on the taxation and revenue side. The last two governments can claim at least some semblance of a vision for the expansion of the tax base, even if that vision was...